GB Chemicals - Business & Impact Manager

Salary: £35,608.00 - £37,694.00  per annum, pro rata

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 21 October 2025

The Role

The Great British Chemicals (GBC) programme, funded by EPSRC and NERC, is a flagship initiative supporting the UK’s transition to net zero through sustainable industrial manufacturing. Led by a consortium of 10 universities (including Sheffield, Newcastle, and Nottingham), GBC will drive innovation by developing scalable, low-emission technologies and advancing sustainable practices. Working with industry, government, civic bodies, and the third sector, GBC will defossilise the chemicals value chain and deliver inclusive economic and environmental impact. The programme will operate through four collaborative streams: digital acceleration of emerging technologies, scaling of carbon capture and process intensification, sustainability validation, and a FlexFund for agile innovation

This role leads on building and maintaining strategic relationships essential to deploying research outcomes and delivering GBC’s business engagement programme. Working closely with Professor Elizabeth Gibson and the wider team, you’ll manage communications and engagement across multiple channels, support governance activities, and contribute to programme delivery. You’ll also support ReNU+, an EPSRC-funded doctoral training initiative, by engaging industry partners in co-delivery and sponsorship of PhD studentships

If you have a pro-active approach both to projects and to your own development, including enthusiasm to undertake training and learn new skills, this role is ideal for you.  A degree of flexibility and the ability to travel for the role, both nationally and internationally (including some evening, weekend, and multiple day trips) will be essential. This will be balanced through the University’s flexible working arrangements and practices.

This role is 72 months, fixed term contract and  part time 18.5 hours per week (0.5FTE)

If you think this might be a good fit for you, we’d love to hear from you!

For an informal chat about the role, please get in touch with Karen Allenby, Head of Partnerships (karen.allenby@newcastle.ac.uk) and/or Professor Libby Gibson, Project Co- Director (elizabeth.gibson@newcastle.ac.uk)

To apply please upload a copy of your CV along with a cover letter evidencing how your skills and experiences meet the person specification as outlined within job description.

Key Accountabilities

• Support the Newcastle Co- Director, in achieving the Programme’s vision and objectives
• Stakeholder Engagement: Work with the Newcastle Co-Director to identify, develop and sustain a strong and inclusive stakeholder engagement programme for GBC. This includes a complex and diverse range of activities facilitated across several internal and external organisations/partnerships. Stakeholders include academics, learned societies, funders, technical professionals, PhD students, research associates, industry specialists, policy makers, non-profit organisations and research participants
• Stakeholder Management: Manage a portfolio of industry contacts, ensuring regular communication and the nurturing of relationships to support long-term collaboration. Identify, develop, and maintain long-term relationships with new and existing industry partners and sector specialists. Serve as the main point of contact for all commercial partners
• Collaboration Facilitation: Facilitate collaboration across academic and industry partners to enhance impact in the field, including refinement of the scope and direction of the programme in response to expert feedback and enable it to be applied
• Project Support and Coordination:  Work with the Newcastle Co-Director to ensure the project is sustained in line with the research vision and within deadlines set, including monitoring and completion of project deliverables and progress reports. Develop and maintain a structure on which to compare progress and impact internally and externally. For example, support the Newcastle PI in developing a web-based application for evaluating applications for funding and research progress against EPSRC and NERC KPIs. Support the Newcastle PI in monitoring engagement with Programme activities to evaluate progress against our ED&I objectives
• Commercial Strategy Development: Contribute to the development of strategic plans for partner engagement, focusing on maximising the impact and relevance of the Programme’s research activities
• Communication:  Effectively communicate and work within an international team composed of staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students, including regular reporting. Prepare and disseminate accurate and robust promotional content and materials for a diverse set of stakeholders and via a range of channels, facilitating knowledge exchange for the programme’s research
• Event Management and Representation: Organise events and meetings between the Programme, its partners and stakeholders, to foster stronger and more impactful relationships.  Represent the Programme at external events, conferences, and meetings to enhance visibility and promote its activities
• Interface internally: Work with internal teams and services across the University to maximise utilisation and impact of relevant in-house expertise from, for example, Marketing & Communications, Legal, Research, Commercial services
• Any other duties commensurate with the role and grade as required to achieve the Programme’s vision

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• A background in STEM (preferably Chemistry/Physical Science/Chemical Engineering), whether through academic study or significant sector experience
• Strong networking and stakeholder management skills, with a track record of building and maintaining long-term partnerships
• Experience of managing complex business objectives to successful completion, including ability to work independently, navigating complex organisational structures
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills capable of influencing and working effectively with academia, industry, and government entities
• Strong leadership skills with a track record of problem-solving and decision-making
• Robust organisational skills and the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously
• Proficient in business management and CRM tools
• Copywriting for B2B marketing purposes and proficient basic web editing
• A familiarity with the challenges and opportunities for chemistry-based solutions for sustainable and circular resource flows relevant to the foundation industries
• Experience in creating and evaluating surveys and interviews
• Understanding of the research and development process in an academic or technology-focused environment. (Desirable)
• Experience in policy/policy impact within a University or UK Government setting (Desirable)
• Knowledge of trusted research and IP governance framework (Desirable)

Attributes and Behaviour

Thinking Strategically

• Demonstrate strategic thinking with the ability to anticipate future industry needs, trends, and opportunities
• Excellent analytical skills, understands and makes sense of complex or conflicting data and different perspectives of stakeholders

Communicating

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in academic and business contexts with the ability to communicate effectively at all levels and produce and present information effectively, in a concise and clear manner. 
• Attention to detail

Team Working

• Building and maintaining a strong network of colleagues and contacts to achieve delivery of objectives
• Willing to help others and share workloads, working collaborately with others and flexibly when required

Planning and organising

• Effective at planning and organising a heavy and complex workload, often to tight deadlines
• Able to set own priorities, in conjunction with team and project objectives, knowing when to seek wider input

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level (preferably in a closely related field), or equivalent training and extensive experience at a level commensurate with the role

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 28670

#LI-SS1